The Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) will launch four ‘Parivartan Yatras’ from four corners of Rajasthan, beginning this week-end, ahead of this year’s State Assembly election, covering all the 200 constituencies and traversing a distance of 8,982 kilometres. The party’s central leaders are going to launch the four yatras.
The BJP’s move assumes significance for internal politics of the party, as a collective leadership is expected to be in the limelight during the election campaign, rather than a single face being projected as the leader. None of the State leaders, including BJP State president C.P. Joshi, will be in the front and no aspirant for the Chief Minister’s post will get a weightage, according to the sources in the party.
BJP national president J.P. Nadda will flag off the first yatra from Trinetra Ganesh temple in Sawai Madhopur on September 2. It will culminate in Jaipur after covering 47 Assembly seats in eastern Rajasthan. Union Home Minister Amit Shah will flag off the yatra from Dungarpur on September 3, while his Cabinet colleagues Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari will launch the two subsequent yatras from Jaisalmer and Hanumangarh.
The choice of Hindu pilgrim centres and temples in the four towns for launching the yatras is also aimed at sending across a message to the BJP’s core constituency and counter what the party describes as “appeasement policy” of the ruling Congress. The places of origin of the yatras are Trinetra Ganesh temple in Sawai Madhopur’s Ranthambhore Fort, Beneshwar Dham in Dungarpur, Ramdevra in Jaisalmer and Gogamedi temple in Hanumangarh.
With the BJP’s central leadership monitoring the election campaign, as many as 72 public meetings will be organised across the State during the yatras between September 2 and 22. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to address a rally on the culmination of all the four yatras.
The decision to bring senior leaders from New Delhi to Rajasthan to launch the yatras also marks a departure from the practice of former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje leading such marches during the last four Assembly elections. Ms. Raje was introduced as the BJP’s face through a yatra in 2003, when the party formed the government by winning 120 seats. She led the pre-polls yatras, titled ‘Suraj Gaurav Yatras’ in 2008 and 2018, when the party was in power, and Parivartan Yatras in 2003 and 2013.
Interestingly, the BJP’s yatras have led to the formation of government only twice so far, as the voters have depicted a “revolving door” pattern since 1998. For the 2023 polls, Ms. Raje is missing from both the BJP’s recently formed election management committee and manifesto committee, giving rise to speculations about her role in the party’s election strategies as well as the scope for her projection as the Chief Ministerial face.
Though the BJP’s senior leaders had claimed that Ms. Raje would be assigned a role “befitting her stature”, her supporters have been left disappointed after the announcement of the yatra schedule. The two-time Chief Minister commands a significant following and continues to be the party’s tallest leader despite her uneasy relations with the central leadership.
The sources in the BJP said Ms. Raje would be accommodated in the election campaign committee to be appointed shortly. Though the BJP expects to project a show of unity by bringing the national leaders for the yatras, the claimants to the CM’s post include C.P. Joshi, Leader of the Opposition Rajendra Rathore, Rajya Sabha member Kirodi Lal Meen and Union Ministers Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Arjun Ram Meghwal and Ashwini Vaishnaw.
The BJP’s attempt to deal with factionalism by keeping the window of opportunity open for several Chief Minsterial aspirants may not fully succeed, as they will compete with each other by trying to bring more crowds as a show of strength in the public meetings to be organised during the yatras. Election management committee’s co-convener Onkar Singh Lakhawat said the yatras would include meetings with farmers, women and Dalits to highlight their “betrayal by Congress”.
The party’s decision to conduct four yatras, which will traverse different parts of the State simultaneously, has also come in for criticism by the ruling Congress. Pradesh Congress president Govind Singh Dotasra said the BJP’s State leaders going to different directions, led by their seniors from New Delhi, clearly indicated factionalism in the party and proved that these leaders could not sit together.
